Divine Right
by ssbailey
Summary: When the team heads to Maine on a routine kinapping case they find something far bigger than they expected, and things get even more complicated when JJ and Garcia turn up missing.' Co-Written with KDZL. Established JJ/Hotch, Emily/Dave, and MG
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: We don't own Criminal Minds—if we did JJ and Hotch would be married with kids.**

**A/N: So, we know you're thinking 'Oh geez, not **_**another **_**story about someone on the team getting kidnapped!' but we promise it's WAY more than just a kidnapping story—Trust us. **

**-Chapter One-**

_"Time flies over us, but leaves its shadow behind." -- Nathaniel Hawthorne_

"Hotch" JJ said seriously as she charged into his office, file in hand, "The Maine field office just called, they need our help finding a college athlete who vanished from her hotel room last night. They think it's related to another kidnapping that happened six months ago."

"How long has she been missing?" Hotch asked, putting down the file he had been reading.

"Six hours and counting." JJ answered, looking at her watch.

"Gather the team. We'll brief on the plane." Hotch instructed, he couldn't help but watch as JJ turned at walked away.

Thirty minutes later, the team plus Garcia were on their way to just outside Orono, Maine. "Aimee Douglass was abducted six and a half hours ago from a small town in Maine. Authorities believe that this abduction is related to that of Erin Larsen abducted a little more than six months ago," JJ said, starting the briefing.

"Well the UnSub definitely has a type." Rossi commented, looking at the pictures of the two women. Blonde hair, blue eyes, the girls could have been sisters.

"Did you know that Hitler favored blonde haired, blue eyed people because he believed that they were the true Germans and subsequently the divine race? It's interesting that he would chose his exact opposite as the one's his teachings said were the perfect race." Reid informed.

"So we're thinking this is the same UnSub who abducted Erin Larsen?" Emily asked, "Why keep her for six months before abducting another girl? And why abduct another girl when he most likely still has Erin Larsen? It says in the file that the locals searched the woods surrounding Orono, but they didn't find her body or anyone else's."

"Maybe he waits to kill one until after he kidnaps the next girl to make sure he always has one of the victim's whenever he needs the release that he gets from whatever he's doing to them?" Morgan mused as JJ's blackberry rang.

"Agent Jareau"

"Agent Jareau, this is Agent Michaels from the Maine field office. One of the local CSIs just found an envelope full of blonde hair and a photo in his mailbox that you're going to want to see--is there somewhere we can e-mail it to your team now or would you rather wait until you get here to take a look?"

"E-mail it to my address that's on my business card, my team will take a look at it here on the plane and brief you when we arrive." JJ instructed him, ending the call.

Moments later, the email came through. The entire team looked up in surprise at the findings, "Erin Larsen is not only alive, but healthy?" Emily asked, confused.

"Is that unusual?" JJ asked.

"For an UnSub that kidnaps women? Yeah, that's unusual." Morgan replied.

"You can really find out someone's health through their hair?" Garcia scoffed.

"Your hair contains tiny DNA fragments and reflects the health at each given time that the hair follicle was growing. So, if you were really malnourished and then started eating well, your hair would be weaker at the ends and stronger the closer to the scalp." Reid explained.

"Garcia open the attachment" Hotch commanded in his normal voice, knowing they didn't have time to mess around with a kidnapping case.

"Why would UnSub leave us a photo from what looks like the 1940's?" Emily asked as JJ leaned closer to the laptop to get a better look.

"I don't think this picture was taken more than a week ago, Em." JJ sighed, pointing to a girl in a dark dress near the back of the group in the photo, "That's Erin Larsen, it has to be."

"How is that possible?" Garcia asked.

"Not everyone updates new technology," Reid began, "I still have an original Nintendo, although newer gaming technologies are better, some people like the originals."

"It's possible this UnSub is taking women for wives in this small community." Hotch pointed out, it was a group picture and all of the people seemed to have light hair. It was a black and white picture, so it was difficult to tell, but all had similar hair color. "Prentiss, Dave, and I will go down to the precinct. Garcia and JJ, go check into the hotels, and Morgan, you and Reid go and check out Aimee Douglass's hotel room--I want to be certain what we're dealing with."

Garcia squealed with delight, grateful to be paired with her friend once more. The rest of the plane ride went quickly as the team focused on their prospective tasks at hand. It was early afternoon by the time the plane landed and Garcia and JJ hopped in a Bureau issued SUV.

"So, did you request a separate room for you and the Hotch-meister, or are you still playing the 'we're keeping it secret' act?" Garcia asked mischievously.

"Separate rooms." JJ admitted. She and Hotch had been dating a while, and though the team always seemed to know when she was dating someone, they hadn't connected the dots to Hotch just yet...at least none of them had except for Garcia. JJ hadn't wanted _anyone_ to know about her relationship with Hotch until they were both sure that it was going somewhere, but her best friend had quickly gleaned the needed information and danced happily as she practically shouted how adorable the JJ/Hotch children that she decided would be romping around in the near future. JJ had only gotten her to quiet and promise not to tell the others by promising to give her all of the juicy details of their relationship--not that there were many. In the months that JJ and Hotch had been dating, they had determined to take it slow, much to the chagrin of Penelope Garcia.

"I'm sure he'd come stay with you if you asked him." Garcia wagged her eyebrows suggestively.

"We don't want everyone to know just yet." JJ reminded her. "Besides, we're on a case. This is work."

"Fine Sunshine. But all work and no play will make JJ a boring girl, and we already know what it will do to Mr. Hotchman--we see it daily."

* * *

"There's no evidence of a struggle" Morgan mused as he and Reid went over Aimee Douglass's hotel room, "No evidence of anything. CSU didn't even find a fingerprint out of place."

"This person knows what he's doing." Reid mused. "Forensic counter measures suggest an organized personality."

"People." Morgan muttered, then looked at Reid. "There's no way to effectively drug and kidnap a grown woman and carry her out without making a sound or leaving any trace by yourself. We've got at least two UnSubs."

"I agree, and that would fit with the theory of the UnSubs taking the girls as wives like in the photo." Reid mused.

"Most abduction victims die within the first 36 hours unless the UnSub has a different plan for them." Morgan agreed.

"But it seems odd that the victims were spaced so far apart." Reid added.

"True." Morgan agreed, "Let's head back to the station, we can fill Hotch in on the way."

* * *

"Garcia, I'm starving, lets just run over to that little market for a snack." JJ suggested as they pulled up in front of the hotel.

"That's why you should eat breakfast." Garcia commented, "The most important meal of the day should _never _be skipped."

"I'm too busy to eat breakfast." JJ defended as they got out of the car and walked towards the market, ignoring the blonde haired men in the old truck that seemed fascinated by them.

"Little Mama" Garcia whispered so only JJ could hear, "Let's hurry, those guys in that truck are giving me the creeps."

Casually looking over her shoulder to see what her friend meant, JJ nodded, "Agreed."

* * *

"You guys must be the BAU." Agent Don Michaels greeted as Hotch, Rossi, and Prentiss entered the small sheriff's office. "I'm Agent Don Michaels from the Maine field office."

"I'm Agent Hotchner, these are Agents Rossi and Prentiss." Hotch introduced.

"And Agent Jareau? She's the one I spoke to on the phone." Agent Michaels asked.

"She'll be here in a few hours, she's checking into the hotel for the rest of us. Can you show us where the case files are?" Rossi explained.

"Right this way." The profilers followed the detective to a small, dark room where the poured over case files for hours. Nothing in the cases gave them any clues or anything to go on. These women were being abducted but the bodies were never found. Whoever was hiding them was doing a good job.

* * *

"Hey Mama, what's up?" Morgan asked as he, Reid, Garcia, and JJ, entered the precinct.

"It's nothing Angelfish, just some creepy guys at the gas station, that's all." Garcia informed, moving towards the conference room that would be the team's home base during the case, effectively ending their conversation.

"JJ what is she talking about?" Morgan asked his other blonde friend as Reid made his way towards the conference room as well.

"We stopped to get a snack at this connivance store across from the hotel, some of the locals don't like the FBI being here or something, I guess, because they watched us the whole time we were at the store." JJ supplied, "It's nothing new to be somewhere we're not wanted, let it go Derek."

"I don't like the sound of someone watching you." Morgan insisted. "Just promise me that you ladies will be careful."

"Derek, I think we can take care of ourselves." JJ scoffed, "it's nothing I haven't handled before."

"Just humor me, okay? If anything's out of whack, just tell me." Morgan continued.

"Or Hotch." Garcia blurted out, eyes widening at the revelation that had so easily slipped.

Morgan missed JJ's death glare that she shot Garcia, "Yeah, or tell Hotch. Or Rossi." He agreed.

"Or me." Reid added, slightly offended.

"Yes, Dr. Genius Boy, we'll let you know, too." Garcia conceded.

* * *

"Okay what do we know?" Hotch asked as the team gathered around the round table they'd be working from, "Anything we didn't already know from Aimee Douglass's hotel room?"

"Well we've got at least a two man team because even if she was drugged, one person couldn't lift her and get her out of the room alone without waking up the whole floor of the hotel. The crime scene was also wiped clean of prints, so someone would have to hold or at least watch the victim while someone else wiped down the crime scene." Morgan answered, pouring a cup of coffee.

"That would fit in with the theory that the UnSubs are kidnapping these girls and keeping them as wives, and so would the fact that we haven't been able to locate a single body that could be connected to this kidnapping." Emily pointed out.

"And given the fact that we now know Erin Larsen is alive and healthy makes me think along those same lines." Rossi mused, "Do the locals have any idea on where a community like the one in the photo might be located? It would have to be secluded, and fairly deep in the woods to keep out the world since they seem to have fixated on the 1940's."

"I asked the sheriff." JJ replied. "He says there's some childhood myths--scary stories--of a group of witches that will eat the fingers of the blonde boys and girls that go too far in the forest."

"Sometimes local myths actually reveal partial truths." Reid added.

"Yea, but a witch that eats fingers of blonde children? I guess I'd better stay out of the woods." Garcia teased, "So anything you lovely behavioral guru's need me to look up on the information highway?"

"Look in the missing persons database for girls ages 18-25, who have the same physical description as Aimee Douglass." Hotch commanded, "I have a feeling this is a lot bigger than we think."

"Okay we've got three who match that description that have disappeared in the last two years from all over the state" Garcia informed, "Erin Larsen, Aimee Douglass, and Stephanie Milligan who disappeared from her off campus apartment just outside the University of Southern Maine. Looks like she wasn't reported missing until a week after she was last seen because she had little contact with her family, only seeing them on 'Parent's Weekend' and holidays."

"Then who reported her missing baby girl?" Morgan asked, taking a sip of the black coffee he'd just poured.

"Umm...it says her sorority sister when to check on her after she wouldn't answer her phone and didn't show up to their weekly chapter meeting--something her friend claims our girl would not have missed, even if her life depended on it. Apparently Stephanie was all about being a sister with Alpha Omicron Pi."

"Rossi, go take JJ and interview the sorority sister. Maybe she knew something." Hotch commanded. He wasn't about to send out an agent that fit the victimology alone, especially when he was dating that agent--even if they still hadn't told anyone about their relationship.

Hours later, no significant leads had been granted. Hotch had decided to stay back at the precinct and instructed the others to get some sleep to start in the morning.

Hearing his cell phone beep, he looked down to find a short goodnight text message from JJ. "_Don't stay too late, I'll keep the bed warm until you get here. I love you.--JJ."_

Allowing himself a small smile at her message, he quickly typed one back promising that he wouldn't be much longer, and dove back into the profile--only heading out after 2 a.m. Resigning himself to sleeping in his own room when he reached the hotel since they would all have to be up in less that four hours, he slipped into the warm bed only to realize that sleep would almost be impossible without JJ there with him--but since JJ was likely to be in a grumpy mood the next day if she didn't get a good night's sleep, he promised himself to try, eventually falling asleep well past 4 a.m.

* * *

"Hey Derek can you check my window? I think I heard something, but I was washing my face so I'm not sure--it could just be my imagination." JJ admitted, slipping a Pittsburgh University sweatshirt over her head as she stood at Morgan's hotel room door.

"Sure JJ." Morgan nodded following her into her hotel room. Inspecting the room and the window locks, and finding everything to be safe, he continued, "Everything looks okay to me, maybe you just heard a cat jump on the fire escape of something."

"That's what I thought." JJ said, then seeing Morgan's raised eyebrow, insisted, "Hey, it was you all that said that if something was weird I should say something. Give me a break!"

Morgan laughed quickly, "Yeah, but I didn't expect you to freak out over every little bump in the night." He teased, heading out the door to go back to his own room.

"Last time I tell you anything." JJ grumbled in mock anger. This was how her relationship with Morgan had always been--they joked and teased each other, but at the end of the day, they were always there for each other. "Goodnight!"

"Night JJ!" Morgan called back, entering his own hotel room again. Lying down on the comfortable bed, his last thought before sleep overtook him was, '_I don't think I've ever been this tired...'_

* * *

JJ tossed in the hotel bed as she slept fitfully. She never slept well when Aaron wasn't around. Looking at the clock that informed her it was just after two in the morning, she looked curiously at the window--it was open. _I'm almost certain that I closed it before I went to sleep._ JJ thought, her instincts going on overdrive. Sitting up in bed, she got no further as she felt a cool cloth press against her mouth as someone put a strong arm around her to diminish her struggling.

Within seconds her body fell limp against her captor's chest as she floated off into a deep sleep. While the larger one carried her out through the window, the younger of the two wiped down all traces that they had ever been inside the room--even wiping down the railing on the fire escape to get rid of fingerprints.

Finally reaching the van they had arrived in, the larger man looked over at his younger brother, "I hope she's worth it Jamie, I mean she's FBI, you know they're not going to give up looking for her as easy as the others."

"She's worth it, she's perfect Ty." The younger man, Jamie, promised as the two drove away into the night with JJ sleeping soundly in the back of the van.

* * *

Most days Penelope Garcia was not a morning person, but something about being out in the cool, clear state of Maine made her feel energized enough that she found herself walking towards a local coffee shop just after 6 a.m.--Morgan would never believe that she was actually up and about before seven.

Rounding the last block before she reached the main street of the small city, she felt someone watching her. Brushing it off as nothing, she kept walking--at a somewhat faster pace than before--towards where she knew people would be, so she would be safe and the Morgan could come rescue her.

Hearing the sound of tires squealing, she turned her head quickly to see the source of the noise--feeling a wet, cool cloth press against her nose and mouth as she did so. Holding her breath she managed to keep from passing out for a few extra seconds while she tossed her badge into a nearby bush, hoping her captors wouldn't find it and that her team would.

The last thing she registered before she drifted into unconsciousness was being loaded carefully into a large van of some sort. _"Hurry my prince, I need you to save me..." _was her last thought as they drove into the sunrise.

**A/N 2: So? What do you think? To continue or to not continue?**


	2. Chapter 2

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Disclaimer: We don't own Criminal Minds.

**A/N: THANK YOU to everyone who's reviewed and alerted this story! We hope you like this chapter as much as you did the first. :)**

**Chapter 2**

JJ woke up with a slight headache and full of nausea in an unfamiliar bed. _What happened?_

Sitting up to look more closely at her surroundings, she was surprised to find her friend in a small twin bed next to her. "_What is Garcia doing here?"_

Climbing out of her own bed and fighting the overwhelming grogginess she felt, JJ whispered urgently, "Garcia! Garcia wake up!" as she shook her friend slightly, sighing in relief when she noticed Garcia start to stir.

"Jajye?" Garcia yawned, stretching her arms slightly, "What's going on? Where are we?"

"I don't know." JJ informed, "But we're not sticking around to find out."

* * *

"Hey, sorry I late." Emily apologized. Being late was her biggest pet peeve, even if it was only two minutes. Looking around and only seeing Hotch, Dave, Morgan, and Reid, she asked, "Where are JJ and Garcia? Are they working from here today?"

"You mean they weren't with you?" Dave asked, instantly alarmed.

"No, the last time I saw JJ and Garcia was last night at dinner."

Hotch automatically began to worry. The woman he loved was no where to be found. The panic inside of him seemed to take over. He dialed JJ's number quickly, his fingers stumbled over the keypad.

_"Hi, this is Agent Jennifer Jareau, I can't take your call right now so please....."_ The familiar voicemail trailed. Hotch tried to calm himself, he couldn't be sure that anything had happened. He tried Garcia's cell phone. _"Hey there. This is the goddess of all things that are living or run on a server. If you'd like to talk sex and your name is Derek Morgan, leave a message and I will get back to you faster than you can say......"_

Hotch shook his head in disbelief. This could not be happening. Not to JJ. Not now.

Noticing his friend's silent panic attack, Rossi spoke up, "Morgan, Reid take Garcia's room and go over it with a fine tooth comb--leave nothing unchecked, we need to know if it's the same UnSubs that have taken the other girls. Hotch and I will check JJ's room as well. Prentiss you call the locals and get CSU here immediately, if we're going to find them we need to do it before they get back to their community."

* * *

"What? Jayje how did we get here?" Garcia asked, sitting up in the bed sharply.

"What's the last thing you remember?"

"I threw my badge into a bush by the coffee place." Garcia said as she scanned her brain for any other memories. "I think they put me in a van." She blinked rapidly as if that would bring back the events that had transpired.

JJ quickly got off of Garcia's small bed, turning the handles of the doors in the room. "Locked!" She informed Garcia who was trying frantically to open the window at the side of the room without any luck.

The sound of a key scraping the lock chilled them both as they backed themselves into a corner in the far left side of the room. "Oh Lizzie, Janie they're already awake!" a young woman called happily as she bounded into the room.

"Good morning sunshine's! I'm Sarah, Peter's wife. I'm so excited you guys are here!" The woman informed the still cautiously observant JJ and Garcia. "Oh and please don't be afraid, we won't hurt you here--I promise."

"Sarah did you say the new girls are awake?" An older woman asked, coming into the room as she dried her hands on her apron. "Oh hi there! I'm Ava, Joel's wife. I'm so glad you're up and awake--now we can finally get started!"

"Started?" Garcia asked, lowering her defenses slightly. These women _looked_ friendly.

"Where are we?" JJ demanded, continually wary of the women that filed into the room.

"There will be a time for questions, now is not it. Now let's get you both into something more comfortable." The older woman--Ava--replied. Two more women entered the room and introduced themselves as Janie and Lizzie as they gently brought the women into two separate bathrooms.

"Now, modesty is highly important, so if you'll just open the door and hand me all of the clothes you are wearing, then we don't need to make this messy." The woman named Lizzie informed JJ.

JJ frantically looked around the bathroom for anything that would help her, but to no avail. The bathroom was simple, nothing more than a sink, toilet, and large cast iron bathtub. There were no cupboards or drawers that could be filled with something to aid her escape.

"Do I need to come in there and help you?" Lizzie offered.

JJ sighed resignedly, and begrudgingly removed her clothes and handed them to the woman outside the door.

"Thank you. Now here's a wash cloth, a towel, and some shampoo so you can take a quick bath. Janie and I will wait outside your room until you two are finished--we laid your new clothes on the bed." Lizzie informed JJ quickly, as Janie did the same with Garcia in the other bathroom.

"What is this place?" JJ murmured as she walked over to the tub.

* * *

"Damn it Reid!" Morgan yelled angrily, barely keeping his fist from going through the nearest wall, "There's nothing here! Nothing! How can that be? You don't just break into a hotel room and leave no evidence behind, it's not possible!"

"I don't know, Morgan" Reid muttered, stopping his mind from spewing out the various ways and reasons the UnSubs would have for cleaning up after themselves. "CSU is here, let's go see if Hotch and Dave found anything."

Morgan just nodded, following Reid towards JJ's room across the small hallway. "Wait! Didn't they say some guys were watching them when they went to that little store across the street?"

"Yeah, and you told them to tell one of us if it happened again." Reid informed.

"They could have security cameras, Reid!" Morgan called running down the hallway towards the stairs, "We could have the UnSubs on tape!"

Morgan sprinted to the nearby store faster than Reid could comprehend what was happening. When the younger genius finally caught up with the other profiler, he found Morgan already viewing the security footage of the parking lot. "They've got to be here." He half-prayed.

* * *

Penelope Garcia was not a happy woman. Anyone who had been abducted in the wee hours of the morning would be a little grumpy, but what she found as she exited the small bathroom horrified her to no end.

"What is that?" She asked to no one in particular as she picked up the offending item off the bed. "It is hideous!"

"What's what?" JJ asked cautiously as she exited her bathroom clad in a small peach colored robe.

"This! This hideous gray thing!" Garcia answered, holding up the offending item to show her friend, "My grandmother wouldn't even be caught dead in this."

JJ had to bite her lip to keep from laughing, "Oh c'mon Pen, it's not that bad..."

"You're only saying that because yours is a nice pretty blue while I'm going to look like a member of the Addams family in this grey dress thing!" Garcia cried, the terror penetrating from her voice. "We've been taken by the Amish."

"I grew up next to the Amish. If they were our captors, there would be no light bulbs in the bathrooms." JJ reminded her. She was scared out of her mind, but she couldn't help but laugh at her friend's reaction. "Garcia, we've been abducted, and your biggest concern is that they're making you wear something you find unfashionable?" JJ asked, disbelieving.

"When fashion is as much part of your life as it is with mine, then you can judge me. But until then, shut up and let me mourn the atrocity." Garcia retorted. "Help me put this crap on." Garcia wrinkled her nose in disdain.

* * *

Aaron Hotchner in his years in the FBI had seen some horrific things. He had seen victims literally be torn apart, he had seen the worst that humanity had to offer, but nothing could prepare him for the absolute terror he was feeling now. He would gladly give anything to keep JJ safe. He tried to remain calm, he had yet to lose his emotions in front of the team and he didn't want to start now. He called Morgan, hoping for any clue to where she could have gone.

"What have you found?" He asked, praying for a clue but at the same time wishing that she was away from harm.

"Hotch, there's nothing in the room-- absolutely nothing, but we think we might have something." Morgan said, Hotch could tell from the urgency in his voice that this was not what he wanted to hear. "JJ and Garcia told me yesterday that there were some men watching them and they felt uncomfortable. We think this might be related, we're back to the store scanning the video feed now to see if we can get a license plate."

Hotch suddenly felt sick. "Someone was watching them?" He couldn't believe JJ didn't tell him this. It seemed like in relationships, it was important disclose any times that you felt like your life was in physical danger.

"They seemed spooked, especially JJ. She even had me check her room." Morgan informed his boss, missing the hidden emotion in his boss's voice. He mistook it as worry as a superior, not as a boyfriend.

"She what?" Hotch asked, his voice turning more emotionless as his anger started to rise.

"She asked me to check her window before we went to bed last night, but I swear the damn thing was locked tight when I checked it." Morgan defended, "I have no idea how the UnSubs managed to get it open, but somehow they did."

"Hotch" Dave spoke up, laying a hand on his friend's shoulder, "It's not his fault they're gone, you've gotta calm down or we'll never find them--we need your head in the game on this."

"My fiancée and her best friend have been kidnapped by a cult and you're telling me to relax?" Hotch asked incredulously, completely missing the fact that he had just outed his relationship with JJ to the rest of the team.

"You and JJ are engaged?" Emily asked, shock settling on her features as she stood in the doorway of JJ's hotel room.

"Yeah, for about two months now." Hotch informed, his voice filled with bittersweet sadness, "She wanted to wait until Henry's birthday to tell everyone since her family's coming in. We've been together almost eighteen months now."

Just as Morgan started to ask a question, Reid came on the line, "Hotch, Agent Michaels just called. They found Garcia's badge in the bushes outside a local coffee shop in the center of town."

"Let's hope that gives us some clue." Hotch said sadly as he shot an angry glance at the phone--hoping that Morgan felt the brunt of the anger that he was sending.

* * *

No sooner had JJ and Garcia put on their 'new' clothes then they heard a knock at the locked door. "Are you ladies finished?" Someone on the other side of the door asked sweetly.

JJ and Garcia froze, unsure of how to respond. Hearing no response, the other women obviously took that as an affirmative sign, as JJ and Garcia heard the key in the door once more.

"Knock, Knock" Janie yelled through the door to alert them that she was about to open it, "I hope you both are dressed."

"We are." Garcia called back, ignoring the glare JJ threw at her. "What? It's not like we could sneak out of here anyways Jayje." Garcia whispered as the women flooded back into the room.

"Good. Now I'm sure you have a few questions, so feel free to ask any of us whatever you would like." Lizzie informed, passing both JJ and Garcia's dirty clothes to Sarah.

"Hey! That's my new Prada shirt! Where are you going with it?" Garcia demanded.

"To dispose of it." Sarah said nonchalantly as she stepped out of the room and closed the door behind her.

Ignoring, or perhaps not seeing, Garcia's murderous glare, Ava seemed to take the lead, "We are just so excited for both of you. I remember back before my Welcoming Ceremony I was nervous, but you both shouldn't be."

"And to think, you were chosen by Tyler and James. What privilege!" Lizzie agreed as they saw Sarah reenter.

"Chosen?" JJ asked.

"It's such an honor." Janie nodded.

"What are you talking about?" Garcia asked perplexed.

"It's so romantic, they told us how they saw you walking down the street and just knew." Sarah gushed as though Garcia hadn't spoken. "They just knew you were the ones."

* * *

"The car is registered to a dead man." Kevin Lynch informed the remaining BAU agents over the web cam, "And the plates are fakes."

"Damn it!" Morgan yelled, startling the whole precinct. "What about Garica's badge? Did they find any prints?"

"Just hers. I'm sorry, I hope you find them." Kevin admitted.

"Do you have aerial photos of the area around the town, within twenty miles?" Morgan asked.

"It will take me about twenty minutes to reposition the satellites, but I'll call you when I get the newest updates." Kevin informed the profilers.

"I just hope we have that kind of time." Morgan said sadly as he ended the call.

* * *

**A/N 2: Don't forget to let us know what you think. We love feedback. :)**


	3. Chapter 3

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Disclaimer: We don't own Criminal Minds.

**A/N: SO is finally back up…and to celebrate we give you another chapter. OH and "Leiter" means leader in German. :) **

**Chapter 3**

Erin Strauss was fuming. She was supposed to be over the BAU, and several other units, which meant it was _her _that people were supposed to inform when things went bad--she was not supposed to find out that two of her people had been kidnapped on the national news.

"Hotchner"

"Agent Hotchner, this is Section Chief Strauss. Why am I hearing about two of you team members going missing on the national news channel and not from you personally?" Strauss demanded, her patience with Hotch already on thin ice as it was.

"The remaining agents on my team and I have spent the entire morning searching for Agent Jareau and TA Garcia." Hotch informed, not even trying to keep the cold anger out of his tone, "I was unaware that the news organizations had any knowledge of this matter, but I assure you that will be dealt with immediately."

"My people will take over the media side of this investigation." Strauss informed curtly, "I am on my way to the air strip now, and I will be overseeing this investigation for the foreseeable future."

"With all do respect ma'am my team and the local agents here have all of our bases covered for the moment, and we are fully capable of running this investigation."

"Agent Hotchner how can you be fully capable of running this investigation when you let two of the agents on your team be kidnapped right under your nose in the middle of the night?"

"We have evidence to believe that only one agent was abducted in the middle of the night. Technical Analyst Garcia was likely taken early in the morning." Hotch blurted out, still upset that it was by following Bureau guidelines that JJ was taken. If he had stayed in her room, she would still be helping him on this case.

"And that helps how?" Strauss asked angrily.

"It shows that our agents were targeted. As I said before, we're handling it." Hotch ended the call, not caring that he had just hung up on a superior.

* * *

"So you're telling us that this whole Welcoming Ceremony you keep talking about is tonight?" Garcia asked, still largely confused on what these 'crazies'--as she'd began to refer to them in her mind--were talking about.

"Yes, and then in two days you two will be happily married to the most gorgeous bachelors in our whole community." Lizzie explained dreamily, "You just don't know how lucky you are."

"Wait, what?" JJ asked dumbfounded.

"We just had a ceremony last week--but this will be so much more special!" JJ noted that it was Ava that spoke. While Garcia was classifying them all as crazies, JJ made an effort to remember each woman.

"And James and Tyler are _so_ handsome." Lizzie gushed happily.

"But there are many things that we need to do to get ready." Sarah informed the group while JJ still stood dazed.

"Oh Penelope come here!" Janie spoke hurriedly from where she stood by the window, "You can see Tyler talking with some of the parishioners from here."

Never one to miss an opportunity to check out a member of the opposite sex, Garcia made her way over to the window, "Parishioners? He's the minister?"

"Of course silly." Janie laughed, and JJ had to bit the inside of her cheek to keep from doing the same--Garcia was most certainly not the traditional pastor's wife.

"Oh, and there's James!" Lizzie squealed, "The next Leiter is _so _handsome--I don't think there could be better brothers."

JJ's face paled as it was Garcia's turn to look smug. Although these crazies may be off their rocker, at least the two government employees were in it together.

* * *

"Hotch, we've got a lead." Morgan said, bursting into the room.

"Finally." Hotch moaned.

"Lynch found a small community fifty miles away, deep in the woods."

"Well let's go check it out."

"That's the problem. It's a community that is surrounded by cliffs on every side except for one small private road that weaves up the backside of the cliff. We can't get in unseen and there's no way of contacting the community--no phones, internet, etc."

"So we go in on our own." Hotch said as though it were obvious.

"We don't have enough for a warrant." Morgan reminded him, realizing that JJ's disappearance was having an enormous impact on the normally controlled profiler.

"I don't care about a warrant, I just want JJ and Garcia back." Hotch spat angrily, not being able to hold back some of his anger any longer, "I just want...I want them back Morgan."

"I know." Morgan commented, understandingly. "We all want them back, but JJ and Garcia can protect themselves Hotch. Rossi has Lynch watching the community over the satellite for now, and as far as we can tell they aren't hurting our girls in any way. Give us time to get a warrant Hotch. Please."

"They're not hurting them in anyway?" Hotch asked skeptically, torture was almost always present with kidnappings when the victims weren't killed within the first few hours.

"Not right now they aren't, thermal imaging suggests they're keeping them in a large house on the edge of the property. The hair from the earlier victim showed that they are likely being well cared for. It's against the profile for them to abduct other women and keep them healthy and then hurt our agents." Morgan informed. "We need that warrant Hotch, but you know we'll go in without it if you want us too."

"No, you're right. As long as we know they aren't being hurt in anyway, we wait. But the moment the UnSubs start whatever torture they have planned we're going in--warrant or no warrant." Hotch commanded. "I'm not going to let them get hurt when I can stop it from happening."

"Agreed."

* * *

JJ was incredibly nervous. The women had fawned about the Welcoming Ceremony all day--but they had refused to get into specifics, instead asking JJ and Garcia to observe as they cooked whatever refreshment dishes they could come up with. JJ had discretely tried to bolt to the door, only to find it locked and to have a strong arm wrapped around her and brought back to the crowd.

"Here. Try this." Ava said, handing the two BAU members a small cup of what appeared to be a tea.

"Oh, no. I'm okay." JJ tried to deter, but seeing the look from all of the women rethought her response.

"We don't want to have to force you to drink it, but we will if we have to." Sarah threatened, though her tone remained kind. JJ was unsure of what was wrong with these women, but she also knew that they meant business. "It'll help you sleep. Don't worry we'll make sure you're awake later so you don't miss the party."

Fake smiles in place, JJ and Garcia just nodded and slowly slipped the drugged tea, easily falling into a state of sudden exhaustion. Janie and Lizzie both took their respective charges back to the room they had woken up in earlier, and helped them into bed--both Garcia and JJ were asleep before they even left the small room.

* * *

As Derek Morgan guzzled his fifth cup of coffee, he wasn't sure what had gotten into him. He usually could stay awake, no matter how much sleep he got. He was a born partier, he'd be fine with two hours of sleep. Yet, he had gotten eight the night before and he was still dead on his feet. That was when something first struck him as odd. He'd fallen asleep easily last night. Morgan was renowned for how long it took him to get to bed. He wasn't tired until around two in the morning, and yet he went to bed at nine last night. It all just seemed off.

"You too?" Emily asked as she grabbed her own cup of coffee. She was notorious for her insomniac ways and seeing her down coffee like there was no tomorrow was a little unnerving.

"Prentiss when did you first start to feel tired last night?" Morgan asked, a light going off in his head about why they both might be so exhausted.

"I don't know, maybe an hour after dinner..._oh._ You don't think...?" Emily gasped, had they UnSubs drugged them?

"It would explain why neither of us seem to be able to wake up, our rooms are on either side of JJ's--the others were across the hall." Morgan supplied, cursing slightly.

"What's going on?" Rossi asked, entering the small break room in search of the coffee machine. "Did you find something?"

"Yeah, like the fact that we think the UnSubs drugged us and that's why we didn't hear them kidnapping JJ in the middle of the night." Morgan grumbled, "Prentiss is the team insomniac and I can run on two hours sleep a day easy--but today we've both had almost a pot of coffee apiece? It doesn't make sense."

"I want both of you to go to the hospital and get a tox screen, we might be able to get some info on these people." Rossi commanded.

* * *

JJ woke slowly and groggily from the deep sleep to find her hands bound together and fastened securely to a large board behind her. As she opened her eyes, she realized that they were no longer in the quaint country farm home that she and Garcia had been stashed in earlier. This appeared to be a barn with a large furnace in the corner. Looking to the side, she saw an already awake Penelope Garcia struggling to free her own hands and feet.

Suddenly, the barn door opened and it seemed as though a small town entered into the room. One man, obviously the leader of the small town, spoke authoritatively, "You have been called and chosen to join the Superiors." The man, holding a small book, motioned to two other men who were dressed identically in all white. "This is a sacred honor..."

The man continued, but JJ could only watch as the two men walked over to the large furnace and retrieved hot pokers.

Opening the book, the man began to read from what JJ immediately recognized as the Bible. "Then said I, Woe _is_ me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts."

JJ had never been one to go to church after she had left home, but she had a sneaking suspicion that she knew what was coming.

"Then flew one of the seraphim's unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar: And he laid it upon my mouth, and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged." The man read clearly, and closed the book, adding "We likewise purge your sin."

The smaller, younger looking one made his way towards her with the small brand in the shape of a 'J' in his hand. Pulling back the part of her dress that covered her right shoulder; his whispered "I'm sorry" in her ear before touching the burning poker to her skin. Determined not to scream, JJ bit her lip hard enough that she could taste blood when the poker was finally lifted off of her skin.

* * *

**A/N 2: So how did we do? Was it just what you wanted after the hiatus?**


	4. Chapter 4

**

* * *

**

Disclaimer: We don't own Criminal Minds.

**Chapter 4**

JJ winced as she was released from her bounds and welcomed into the extended arms of the entire female population of this 'town'.

"Oh, it's so romantic!" One woman that she hadn't met yet said dreamily.

_Romantic is definitely not how I would describe it._ JJ admitted silently, glancing at Garcia who seemed to still be shaking slightly as she was hugged by Ava and Sarah.

"My sons have chosen to have their wedding ceremonies at the most holy of hours." A man both JJ and Garcia recognized as the leader of the 'town' spoke to the entire group, "We ask that you all join us at the chapel just after 11pm two days from now and we will all await the gift of another day together before the start of the ceremony."

"Come, Jennifer." A woman that JJ didn't recognize ushered her to the back of the barn, "You and Penelope need your rest. This will be an eventful week."

* * *

"Tox screen came back with traces of Rohypnol and Phenobarbital." Emily said triumphantly as she laid the report on the conference table for the others to examine.

"Phenobarbital?" Rossi asked, surprised, "So far, this group has done everything old school. Phenobarbital is a relatively new anticonvulsant drug."

"Actually, Phenobarbital now used to treat seizures, was originally developed by German scientists in 1904 as an anesthetic." Reid explained, "One of the men that created it also discovered the affects insulin has on the body."

"So they drugged Prentiss and Morgan because they were on either side of JJ, but why did they not do the same with Garcia?" Hotch questioned, "Reid and I were not drugged."

"Is it possible JJ was the main target, and Garcia was taken as a crime of opportunity?" Emily mused, "The fact that Garcia was able to leave her badge at the scene supports that theory."

"Yes, but they could have planned to take JJ last night and Garcia tonight." Rossi spoke up.

"But so far they've been extremely organized, so wouldn't it go against the profile for them not to predict that after we realized JJ was gone we would close ranks?" Morgan asked, glad the affects of the drug were finally wearing off and his mind was clearing up.

"So the UnSubs kidnapped JJ then got Garcia before we'd realized that JJ was gone?" Hotch asked.

"I think that's the most reasonable explanation." Reid agreed.

"Nothing about this situation is reasonable." Hotch grumbled.

* * *

The morning routine followed the system from the day before. Garcia continued to protectively guard her right shoulder while JJ cringed every time the fabric brushed against her new wound. Not left alone for more than a moment together, Garcia and JJ were unable to discuss the happenings of the night before.

"Hey Sarah?" Garcia called, fake yawning. "Is it okay if Jennifer and I rest a little while upstairs? All this planning has made us extremely tired."

"But I'm not--" JJ started, only to be cut off by a glare from Garcia. "I'm not just tired, I'm exhausted." JJ lied quickly, hoping to hide her slip up.

"Oh of course, I'm sorry we just get so excited with teaching the new girls." Sarah smiled, "Lizzie and Janie will show you upstairs."

"Thank you." JJ nodded, letting a small yawn escape her lips--how they managed to convince these women that they were already needing a nap at 11am was beyond her, but she wasn't going to say anything.

"Let us know if you need anything." Lizzie said sweetly as she shut the door and locked it behind her.

"What's the plan?" Garcia asked in a hushed whisper. "I know you've been coming up with one since we woke up in this hell hole."

"I don't know, from what I can see we're totally surrounded by woods." JJ informed her.

"So, what does that matter? You're not still scared of the woods are you?" Garcia asked quickly.

"But, we don't know how far away we are from civilization. We could be _days_ away from the nearest city, so I think the best plan is to just play along."

"So your big plan is to play along and wait for them to have some other kind of ritual?" Garcia whispered angrily, "What are they going to do next--maim us?"

"Pen, the others have to know we're missing by now, we'll just have to do what we can to survive until they get here." JJ sighed quietly, "You know how I hate not being able to protect myself, but our best option is waiting--we don't have enough information to safely get us out of here on our own."

"Well what was that whole 'Holiest of hours' garbage?" Garcia asked angrily.

"I'm pretty sure you don't want to know." JJ admitted softly.

"What is it?"

"I think that they're holding our 'wedding' tomorrow."

* * *

"Hey guys, I think I found something on the restaurant security footage!" Reid called, making the rest of the team come rushing into the small Audio/Visual room at the Maine Field Office.

"What did you find?" Hotch asked hurriedly, hoping it would be more than enough to get a warrant and bring JJ and Garcia home.

"Watch." Reid answered, pressing the play button on the cued up video. The team silently watched as a average sized blonde haired guy that had been their waiter placed something in Morgan and Emily's drinks skillfully before handing them over to the unsuspecting agents.

"The waiter drugged us?!" Emily said angrily, "And by the pretty skillful way he just put the drug in our drinks makes me think this isn't the first time he's drugged some unsuspecting people."

"Find the employment records for this guy and bring him in for questioning." Hotch commanded to no one in particular as everyone scurried to get the job done as quickly as possible. "And see if the local judge will sign off on a warrant." He added.

* * *

A soft knock interrupted the discussion of the two women, followed by the familiar sound of the door unlocking. "I'm so sorry to wake you," Janie apologized as she and the other women entered the room, "but Tyler will be here any minute. Originally James was going to be able to take you out as well," Janie apologized to JJ, "but he is the only one who goes into town, so he could be a while."

"I think I'll be able to manage." JJ assured her, feeling only slightly bad for the relief that swept through. "Have fun."

"Thanks" Garcia said, glaring at JJ when Janie looked away for a second. Following her "mentor" down the staircase to meet her future husband, Garcia asked, "So what's this Tyler like anyways?"

"Well, why don't you see for yourself." Janie advised, "Penelope, I would like to introduce you to Tyler von Geisen."

* * *

"James von Geisen" Morgan informed, pointing through the two-way glass at their waiter who was now sitting in the interrogation room--having no idea that he was looking at JJ's 'fiancée'. "Minor arrests for theft, burglary, and vandalism. According to his file he also has an older brother, Tyler, that's an ordained minister, but Lynch can't find him as the pastor of any of the registered churches in the United States."

"Were we able to find anything else on him?" Rossi asked, watching as the suspect started to fidget nervously as he waited.

"Kind of. According to the local police chief, Patrick von Geisen--the boys father--is the leader of the community where JJ and Garcia are. Unofficially, they call themselves The Überlegene and it's basically a small cult group." Morgan explained.

"The Uberlegene?"

"It means superior in German." Reid announced, "I think we should have Kevin go through missing persons as far back as the 1940s."

"Why?" Emily asked, still somewhat groggy even though the drugs in her system had worn off--now her system was on a sugar crash.

"Because I think they're one of the 'tester' communities Hitler was rumored to send to the US during the start of the war to see how susceptible Americans were to the Nazi lifestyle." Reid explained, "If this is what I think it is, it's the only one I have ever heard of--but some historians have argued their existence since the sixties."

* * *

Garcia wasn't sure how she ended up with the taller blonde man, nor why she felt oddly at ease with him. Sure, everyone in this little 'village' was cookier than a loon, but this loon seemed a little kinder than the others.

"So you grew up here?" Garcia asked as they walked on a well worn path through the woods.

"For the most part." Tyler nodded, unsure if he could trust this Penelope with his secret. "My mom ran away when I was little, took me and James with her too, but my dad found her somewhere in the city and brought us back here. I never saw her again after that."

"What happened to her?" Garcia almost whispered, feeling bad for the man, but frightened for her own sake.

"Some in the village said that my father probably disposed of her. I pray that didn't happen. But I don't really know." Tyler admitted, his own defenses against this inquisitive woman were crumbling.

"And you're a pastor?" Garcia asked.

"Father always wanted me to follow in his steps as the Leiter of the Überlegene, but I never had the stomach for it. When I was about ten, he decided along with the rest of the village that Jamie was better suited for that role."

"Is that why you faked it in that ceremony thing?" Garcia asked, her eyes darting around to see if anyone could overhear. She hadn't even told JJ that she had not had to endure the branding.

"Like I said, I've never had the stomach for some of the things that the Überlegene do." Tyler repeated, making the decision to trust this woman with his secret, "It's why I've been leaving clues for your team on how to shut us down, my father is brainwashing these women into submission."

"You left the photo and the hair?!" Garcia gasped, remembering the evidence that had mysteriously appeared at the beginning of the investigation.

"I wanted them to know that something was happening to these women. When Jamie saw your coworker, he decided she was perfect. I thought that if I brought you too, then people would look harder to find you both."

"Wait," Garcia said, her mind going back to what he had shared earlier "brainwashing? Is that even possible?"

"Apparently. We call it 'Welcoming', but the village has been taking women from surrounding areas for years, and weeks later its as if these women had been living here their whole lives."

"Oh I think I read this thing about that one that my Angelfish wanted me to look at it...." Garcia mumbled, "Oh! It's called Stockholm Syndrome."

"I thought there might be a name for it." He said softly.

"Yep, and don't worry--my team is the best of the best, they'll fix everything." Garcia promised, smiling lightly, "So tell me, what doyou know about the world outside of this _community?"_

"Well, I've gone into town a couple of times with Jamie, but that's about it." Tyler admitted. "I was taught that they were the 'Unclean' but even the small trips into town have led me to believe that there's nothing wrong with the outside world."

"Then you have been missing out." Garcia laughed. "Have you ever had a milk shake before?"

"What?"

"I asked if you had ever had a milkshake before." Garcia informed, "Strawberry is the best, but not everywhere sells that flavor, so you have to search for it--which makes it all the better when you do finally get it."

"Is it like ice cream?" Tyler asked, completely interested to learn about the ways of the outside world.

"Sorta, but you drink it through a straw." Garcia smiled, "Any idea how far to the nearest McDonald's?"

"That restaurant with the yellow 'M' outside?"

"Yeah. I bet we could go get a milkshake, and be back before anyone noticed we were missing."

"It's about thirty minutes away," Tyler admitted, "but there is only one truck allowed out of the village, and Jamie hasn't come back yet."


	5. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer: We don't own Criminal Minds.**

**Chapter 5**

"James, we know you drugged us." Morgan said, slamming his hands on the table of the interrogation room. "We found trace amounts of Rohipnal and Phenobarbital in our bloodstreams, not to mention a dozen other controlled substances."

James sat there quietly, not saying a word--just like his father had trained him to do.

"Teams are headed to your community as we speak James." Dave informed, crossing his arms, "It's over, we've got all the information we need to shut you down."

"If that were true you wouldn't be questioning me." James spoke up, unable to stay quiet any longer. "You have nothing."

Morgan was not about to be reminded of how thin their case was by this blonde punk. "Look man, your guys took my friends. Where are they?"

"Who? I've never met you before." James repeated. "I don't even remember meeting your friends."

"We're not going to get anywhere with him, Morgan." Dave said, playing his part in this orchestrated interrogation. "He's too smart to give anything up."

"I just need a few minutes with him alone." Morgan grumbled, playing the angry cop well, "Then he'll tell us everything we want to know."

"And if I let you do that then the case will fall through in court, we have to let him go." Dave argued, pulling Morgan out of the room. They had to convince the UnSub they had nothing and then put someone in the room he would feel comfortable with.

"Fine." Morgan seethed, smirking slightly when he noticed James flinch, "Let go of me man."

"Okay Reid, you're up." Morgan informed the younger profiler who was waiting outside the interrogation room with Emily and Hotch. "Remember, sympathize with him--make him think you're his friend."

"I've got this under control Morgan." Reid promised, entering the interrogation room slowly as the others watched through the glass.

"You think this is going to work?" Emily asked.

"It has to. We can't get a warrant unless he tells Reid that he took JJ and Garcia, or kidnapped anyone else." Hotch said emotionlessly. He wanted nothing more than to be alone with the UnSub and let his sadistic side out on the man until he got a confession, but he couldn't do that, not when  
there was a chance it might not work and that would put JJ's life in danger even more.

"Hey, sorry about those guys. We're processing your release paperwork now." Reid said in a friendly tone as he sat down across from James, "You married?"

"Not yet, well tonight was supposed to be the big night, but now..." James started, "Now I'm not sure it'll happen."

"Why? Just tell her this was just a big misunderstanding, I'm sure it work out." Reid mused, hoping to gain the UnSub's trust.

"It's not that simple." James answered, "It's...Where I'm from things are different, there are different rules."

"Different how?" Reid pondered offering James a glass of water and taking one for himself. "Isn't the law the same everywhere?"

"Laws only apply if the community enforces them." James admitted, "It's not the law I'm worried about."

"So, where you're from, what are the different rules?" Reid asked, backtracking slightly.

"Modesty is important among the chosen." James tried to explain, feeling surprisingly at ease with the agent in the room, "As is chastity and hard work."

"The chosen? Who are they?" Reid inquired.

"I have already said too much. Either arrest me or let me go." James said, Reid's question making him feel strangely suspicious.

"You don't have to answer if you don't want too." Reid surrendered. Letting his voice take on a sad tone, he continued, "I'm just making conversation until they finish your release paperwork. The only reason it's taking so long is because two of my team members went missing two days ago, and we're  
all a little on edge."

"I'm sorry to hear that, truly I am." James started, but then realized what he had just been told, "Two of your team members are missing? But Ty said she was just some support staff girl that no one would miss. I'm going to kill him!"

"That's going to be pretty hard from inside a cell." Emily said coldly, entering the room behind Morgan and Agent Daniels who were taking James into custody.

"James von Geisen you are under arrest, you have the right to remain silent..." Agent Daniels started, but was cut off by James's screams.

"You?! You tricked me into telling you stuff!" James screamed at Reid, who merely shrugged.

"All I did was talk to you." Reid answered, "You didn't have to say anything back."

* * *

Garcia and Tyler returned to the large house, smiling as they fell into deep conversation.

"Oh, Penelope, we're so glad you're back." Lizzie squealed happily, "There's still so much to plan about tonight!"

"Yeah, come join the party." JJ muttered sarcastically while the others ignored the tone of the blonde FBI agent and nodded in agreement.

"I had a nice time Penelope, I'll see you later tonight." Tyler smiled, kissing her hand lightly.

"I had fun too." Garcia smiled, blushing slightly. "Bye."

"We got the warrant!" Emily yelled, running back into the precinct with the object in hand. "The judge just signed off on it five minutes ago."

"Finally." Rossi muttered under his breath, and the others nodded in agreement.

"Let's move." Hotch commanded, opening his phone to alert the SWAT units that were on stand by.

* * *

**A/N: Okay, so we know this is a short, short chapter…but at least you know something big is happening in the next one, right? **


	6. Chapter 6

**Disclaimer: We don't own Criminal Minds.**

**Chapter 6**

"Agent Hotchner we go in on your command." The main SWAT team leader, the same one the team had worked with at Liberty Ranch, said through Hotch's ear wig. "Waiting on your signal."

"On my mark." Hotch whispered, then seeing that the teams were in place yelled "Go!"

Simultaneously, agents poured into the small community, surprised to find the streets and open areas completely deserted.

"Where is everybody?" Morgan asked cautiously, "I don't like this, not at all. Something's wrong. What did we miss?"

"Reid didn't they create bunkers to hide themselves from bombings during World War 2?" Hotch asked, gun pointed straight in front of him as he cleared yet another deserted building.

"Yes, in London, Winston Churchill designed the shelters out of the city's subway system--sometimes even digging new tunnels to make room for more people--and even created himself what he called his 'War Room' beneath the city." Reid informed quickly, "We should look for cellars, bomb shelters, basically anything that could lead underground."

"Well, that could be anything!" Emily said exasperatedly.

"We've got a heat sensing device being airlifted here from the field office, it's about twenty minutes out." A SWAT team member announced over the teams earwigs.

"That's too long, we're going to have to find it." Dave concluded sadly as the team nodded and separated, searching for any possible entrance to the bunker.

* * *

"Everyone quiet." Tyler's father commanded the group in the large bunker beneath the city.

"Tyler, you and Rolf go and seal the entrances. We can prevent them entirely from discovering us."

Tyler nodded obediently and he and another blonde man went in separate directions.

* * *

Seconds seemed like hours as they continued their search of the seemingly abandoned commune, Hotch and Morgan searching long after they had cleared the last of the remaining visible structures.

"Hotch, Morgan stop." Dave commanded sadly, "They're not--"

"They have to be here Dave, I can't lose her." Hotch argued, eyes searching his surroundings for one last building to go through, one last shelter to clear.

"No wait, be quiet! I think I hear something!" Dave yelled. Everyone immediately froze, and after a few moments they heard a small whisper of 'over here!' coming from what appeared to be the rock foundation of the small church.

"It's the church! All units be advised they're in the church." The SWAT leader announced over the earwigs, bringing the rest of the agents over to the small building.

"What if it's a trap?" Morgan questioned quickly, not that he didn't want to find his baby girl and JJ, but he didn't really want to get blown up while doing it.

"Then that's a risk I'm willing to take." Hotch said quickly as he ran up the stairs of the small church.

"Hotch!" Morgan called after his boss, the threat of another bombing looming over the younger agent.

"Over here." Hotch heard the distinct whisper coming from a small vent in the front of the church. "What is he saying, I can't hear it?" Hotch asked, his ears must have received more damage from that explosion in New York than he realized.

"He's saying there's a staircase underneath the pulpit." Morgan informed, "Help me move it."

Quickly moving the heavy wooden object, Hotch, Dave, and Morgan found themselves staring down at two familiar faces. "JJ! Garcia! Up here, hurry!" Morgan called, motioning for them to make their way up the staircase to safety.

"Took you long enough stud muffin." Garcia said quickly as she and JJ ran up the stairs. JJ immediately fell into the arms of her fiancé, unable to express how grateful she was to see him.

"Alright you love birds, while this is a great occasion, I think we need to get you two out of here." Rossi said quickly motioning to JJ and Garcia. Hotch placed his arm around JJ's shoulder and she winced as the pressure was put on her wound.

"Jayje? Are you okay?" Emily asked.

"I'm fine, it'll heal." JJ dismissed, "We need to shut them down, Aaron. There are so many girls down there who have no idea who they really are, all of the missing girls are down there and none of them want to leave."

"Stockholm syndrome" Morgan surmised, "They've been brainwashing them."

"Umm...guys? I think we've got bigger problems right now." Reid squeaked, pointing to the stairwell JJ and Garcia had just exited, "I'm pretty sure they know we're here, the leader just had everyone drink the 'sacrificial wine'--my guess is it's poisoned."

Reid and Morgan ran quickly down the stairs to the group in the bunker to find people collapsing at their sides. Rossi quickly followed them as Hotch and Emily guided Garcia and JJ out of the church.

Once both Garcia and JJ were safely in an ambulance making sure they were still healthy, and that JJ's shoulder wound was healing without infection Hotch and Emily ran back to the small church to find Reid, Morgan, Dave, and several other agents staring sadly at the mass of people laying on the floor in front of them--all dead.

"They were dead before we even got down here" Morgan whispered sadly, tears forming in his eyes the men, women, and children that lay unmoving on the floor. "We can't find a pulse on any of them."

"Over here!" the lead SWAT agent called from across the room, where he stood on a short staircase, "There's a small nursery just up these stairs, we found all three babies in there still alive. It doesn't look like they ingesting the poison, but my guys are bringing them down now."

"Reid what kind of poison works this fast?" Emily asked gravely, "They were all dead within minutes."

"By the amount of blood around their noses and mouths it looks like they ingested rat poison that was ground up and mixed in with the wine." Reid whispered, trying to disassociate himself from all the dead faces staring up at them, "One pellet of rat poison is 200 times to normal dose of blood thinners for a 300 pound man, and judging by the way they died so quickly suggests that the amount they ingested far exceeds that amount."

Looking down at the death and carnage that surrounded them, there wasn't much more they could do than to take the small babies from the nursery up to the ground floor and call the ME.

Walking sadly back to the Bureau SUVs, they wordlessly agreed to meet Garcia and JJ at the hospital, grateful that two more names would not be listed among the dead, but also knowing the images of the dead would be visiting in their nightmares sooner rather than later.


	7. Chapter 7

**Disclaimer: We don't own Criminal Minds. :(**

**Chapter 7**

As they approached the Emergency Room, the team was delighted to find that Garcia had already been released after being checked out by medical personnel. Before they could ask her how JJ was doing, they heard their blonde friend yelling at a doctor not far from the nearest curtain to the door.

"I don't care what it looks like," They heard her yell, "give me some antibiotics or whatever and let me go!" She demanded.

Hotch smiled as he went to check on her. He knew that his fiancée didn't mind hospitals, but she happened to hate doctors with a passion and unless he offered some support she might very well come unglued.

Pushing back the curtain, he came face to face with an angry JJ and a very frightened young doctor. At the sight of him, JJ relaxed visibly and begrudgingly let the young doctor finally take a good look at her shoulder.

"Agent Jareau..." the doctor started, sounding very much like Reid when he was nervous, "You are very lucky that this did not become infected. I'll...I will...I'll write you a prescription for..for some burn and antibiotic cream that you should put on three times a day."

"So I can leave?" JJ asked hopefully.

"Umm...sure?" the young doctor offered, handing her the prescription and exiting the room quickly.

Hotch noticed how JJ quickly covered the obvious sore spot, but she hadn't moved quickly enough. He saw the angry inflamed skin, and his heart melted for his fiancée.

"It's nothing." She commented as she saw the pained look in his eyes.

His quirked eyebrow showed his disbelief in her statement, prompting her to continue, "alright, it hurts a little, but it will be fine."

"What happened?" He asked cautiously.

"It was all part of some 'ceremony'. From what some of the girls told me later, it was kind of like an engagement ceremony. But it's not a big deal. Did you get everybody out?" She asked, quickly reminding him of their job.

"JJ--" He started, not sure how to break the news to her.

"I mean, I know most of the people there were pretty out there, but--" at his devastated look, she stopped, the silence permeating the small curtained area.

"They didn't make it." Hotch informed sadly, easing himself down next to her on the small gurney she was sitting on, "They drank some kind of poison before we could get to them, there was nothing we could do."

JJ could not stop the tears from coming at his words, even as she felt a comforting arm carefully pull her closer to him, "What about the children? They took the babies upstairs when they forced us in that basement."

"SWAT found three babies, all are seemingly healthy." Hotch informed, kissing the top of her head softly, "They're being looked over by the pediatrician's here right now."

"What's going to happen to them?" JJ asked.

"They'll likely go through the foster care system here in Maine or in another state. We have no way of knowing what their names are or even who their parents were, so in the off chance that the children had mothers that were kidnapped as well, we can't notify their families." Hotch said sadly.

"What if we took one?" JJ asked. "I know we've been trying to have a baby of our own--and we can still do that, I want to do that--but I don't want to leave them here all alone, Aaron."

Hotch allowed a small bit of the shock he was feeling on his face, but the quickly let it disappear--he should have know JJ would want to do this, she was the most caring person he had ever met. "If this is what you want, I'm okay with it."

"Really?" JJ smiled. "My my, this is such a screwed up way to start our family together, but that's alright. I'll take it." JJ shrugged, wincing as her shoulder brushed her gown and began to ache.

"I'm just glad that you're here to start one with." Hotch admitted. "You scared me there."

JJ laughed sadly. "The famous Aaron Hotchner, scared? I don't believe it." Her biggest fear while being held captive hadn't been if she was killed, but that she would never see her family again. She couldn't bear the thought of not having Hotch, Henry, and Jack in her life. It had almost been too much.

"You should. I think the rest of the team was starting to go crazy after dealing with my panic. I can't conceive a world that I could live in without you." He lightly kissed her, his hands on her waist, trying to keep her steady. From this moment on, he swore to himself, JJ was in his arms and nothing would ever harm her again.

* * *

"Hey there." Rossi smiled, leaning up against the window that Emily was watching intently. "What are you doing here? We've been looking everywhere for you." The moment that the team had entered the hospital, Emily was nowhere to be found. He and Reid had been searching the floors for the last hour, trying to find her to tell her that Garcia and JJ would be alright.

"You see the three infants in the corner." Emily pointed. "Those are the only survivors."

"Its a hard draw, saving so few." Rossi murmured.

"Those little babies are never going to know their mothers. Their mothers who were normal women until--" Emily trailed off. "How is this fair?"

"Life isn't fair." Rossi shrugged. "But maybe they are better off being placed in homes where they will be loved instead of a Nazi compound that would poison their minds."

"Those women never even had a chance to be parents." Emily whispered. "So many people would kill for a shot at raising a baby, and these women died before they could enjoy it. What's going to happen to them?"

"As far as I know they'll be put up for adoption, but until someone takes them in, they'll be with foster families here in the area." Rossi informed solemnly, this was the unfortunate part of the job, the part where even the ones that live aren't really saved.

"I applied to adopt a child once." Emily confessed softly, never taking her eyes off the three small children sleeping softly in their cribs. "They told me that with my job, and the fact that I'm completely single with no husband in sight, that I would not make a very good mother--and I almost believe them sometimes, after cases like this anyways."

"Emily Prentiss look at me." Rossi commanded, sounding very much like Hotch. When she locked eyes with him, he continued, "You would be the best mother any child could hope for, never doubt that for a second--ever. Do you hear me?"

"I got it, thanks Dave." Emily nodded, smiling faintly. "Still doesn't stop me from wanting to take one of these babies home with me, even though the state won't allow me to adopt it."

"I'll adopt the baby with you, we'll do it together." Dave whispered, and when she turned to face him in shock his lips descended softly onto hers. Relief flooded through him as he felt her relax into the kiss, but pulled away after a few moments--the middle of the hospital was not the place to let passion overtake them. "So should I take that as a yes, and that you want to adopt a baby with me?"

"Absolutely" Emily said gratefully.

* * *

"Hey, stud muffin," Garcia called softly as she approached Morgan from behind. After being cleared by the doctors, she hadn't had much to do, but had definitely noticed how her good friend had separated from the group. Finding him alone in the hospital gardens, she had finally decided to interrupt his solitude.

"Hey baby girl, how are you feeling?" He smiled and scooted over, motioning for her to sit on the small bench with him.

"Fine. It's not every day you're kidnapped by a secret Nazi community, then protected by the man who chose to kidnap you, discovering that he's not a bad guy, only to find out that he and everyone in that place isn't around anymore." Garcia smiled. "But something else is going on here, and since I've been out of the game for the past two days I'm going to need you to fill in the blanks, Angel."

"It's their faces, Pen." Derek sighed, rubbing a hand over his face, "I can't get them out of my mind."

"Sweetheart there was nothing you could do to save them--" Garcia started, only to be interrupted by him.

"No, the babies faces. The one's we saved, but I guess we really didn't save them, not really." Derek laughed emotionlessly, "I mean at least before they would have had their parents, and now they have no one. No one at all, and that breaks my heart."

"Mine too." Garcia admitted, letting him rest his head on her shoulder for a moment.

"I talked to their social worker, I thought maybe I could at least save one of them, you know, take one of them home with me." Morgan blurted suddenly, surprising himself a little at his sudden outburst. "She told me that I can't adopt with my job the way it is, and they don't let single people adopt, not often anyways."

"Oh Sugar," Garcia smiled; only Derek Morgan would be upset that he couldn't help small children in need.

"I just...we all know what can happen to children in foster care. I can't let these kids go through that."

"What if we did it together?" Garcia suggested.

"Did what together?" Morgan replied.

"What if we adopted a child together? I mean, we're friends, and while any baby would be lucky to have the illustrious Derek Morgan as a father, they'd be heaven blessed to have me as their mom."

"Pen--" Morgan started, but stopped when he saw the look on her face, "I don't know what to say. Are you sure you want to do this?"

"Gorgeous, I think you know me well enough to know that I wouldn't offer if I wasn't sure." Garcia smiled, reassuring him that she really did want to do this, "I only have one condition though."

"Name it."

"You have to let me dress him or her in whatever I want." Garcia smirked, "Our baby is most definitely not going to be wearing anything white or ugly tan."

"Deal" Morgan laughed, Garcia would always be the most unique person he knew.


	8. Chapter 8

**Disclaimer: We don't own Criminal Minds.**

**A/N: So here's the last chapter…let us know what you think! :)**

**Chapter 8**

"Are you sure you're okay with this?" JJ stopped with her hand on the DCFS door and turned to watch Hotch intently. "I mean, with Henry and Jack every other weekend I can understand how if you'd--"

"Ssh." Hotch quickly quieted her with a soft kiss, "If this is what you want, then this is what I want."

"It is." JJ smiled, grateful to have the support of her fiancé. Opening the door, they were shocked to find not only Dave and Emily, but Derek and Garcia already in the waiting room.

"What are you guys doing here?" JJ asked, confused--as far as she knew no one had known she and Hotch were going to the social worker's office. _Is Emily holding Dave's hand? I didn't see that coming._

"Same thing as you and the boss man I assume, Sugar" Garcia smiled, stealing one of the skittles Morgan was eating. When she received a glare from him, she smirked, "Don't give me that look, I was locked up without sugar for _days._"

"_Two_ whole days Garcia." JJ laughed.

"Two days more than I would have gone if I hadn't been _kidnapped_!" Garcia retorted.

"Excuse me, but Mrs. Johnson can see you all in the conference room now." The receptionist interrupted briefly, "If you will all follow me, I'll show you where it is."

Hotch squeezed JJ's hand, excited for what they were about to do. They were really about to start their own family, it was more exciting than he had anticipated.

* * *

JJ couldn't help but smile at the familiar feeling of the small baby nestled in her arms. The girl couldn't have been more than six months old and she was incredibly active, squirming to look around at things, but content as long as someone was holding her.

"All that's left for you to do is to chose her name and sign the birth certificate" The social worker--Mrs. Johnson--informed JJ and Hotch. "As soon as you do so you will legally be this little one's parents. Do you have a name picked out?"

Smiling slightly, JJ glanced down at the baby in her arms before taking Hotch's hand in hers. "Claire. Claire Elizabeth Hotchner."

"Very well." Mrs. Johnson nodded, filling in the appropriate space on the baby's new birth certificate. They had only been able to estimate her age at the hospital, using developmental clues to determine that the newest Hotchner was probably just over five months old. "Now, all I need is for the two of you to sign in the appropriate spots and she's all yours."

Hotch quickly snatched the pen out of Mrs. Johnson's hand and signed in the checked boxes, holding the pen to JJ, he accepted the wriggling girl who smiled brightly at him. He couldn't help the feeling of joy that swelled within him at the sight of the little tow-headed girl.

Walking out of the small government office, JJ and Hotch easily found Emily and Rossi who had already completed their paperwork. Dave was currently holding a sleeping baby boy in his arms.

"Can you believe this?" Emily whispered, playing softly with the boy's light hair, "we're parents."

"I couldn't be happier." Dave smiled at Emily which did not go unnoticed by JJ who shot Hotch a curious look.

"So how long have you two been--?" Hotch queried, allowing his new daughter to drool on his white shirt while she looked around happily.

"Almost three months." Emily returned Dave's smile. "You guys aren't the only ones who know how to keep a secret."

"Oh please sugar muffin, I told Derek that you two were dating almost two months ago." Garcia informed playfully, Morgan following close behind her with their baby girl securely in his arms. Having been the youngest and the smallest of the three survivors found, Baby Paige Garcia Morgan had instantly fallen in love with the warmth of sleeping in Derek's arms and would whimper if she was put down in her car seat at any point. "Even my sweet little Paige could have seen that her future husband's mommy and daddy where finally doing the dirty."

Emily's cheeks flushed lightly, and Dave laughed softly. "Matthew's not dating until he's thirty." Dave informed protectively.

"And neither is Claire" Hotch added, ignoring the small glare JJ shot him.

"Paige is never dating." Morgan stated, his tone leaving no room for argument. _"Ever."_

* * *

_Twenty Five Years Later_

"Pen, the wedding was really beautiful." JJ smiled, sitting down next to her friend as they watched Derek dance with his daughter who had just become Mrs. Matthew Rossi. "I can't believe Paige married Matthew, but I think they're good together."

"Thanks Jayje." Garcia smiled, her eyes tearing up as she watched her now married daughter laugh at something her father whispered in her ear. "She just grew up so fast, I mean it was just yesterday that I was bringing her home for the first time, and now she's someone's wife. It's just...fast, faster than I thought it would be at least."

"I know" JJ nodded understandingly, "My Claire is married to a soldier and having a baby in three months. It just seems so surreal. Do you remember that day when the guys all decided that the kids were never allowed to date? I guess they didn't know that Paige and Matthew were going to marry each other, and Jack and Sarah Reid would end up together did they?"

"I do remember that, but Derek was the first one to crack when Paige didn't get asked to Homecoming her freshman year." Garcia sighed as she watched Derek hand Paige over to Matthew for their first dance as a married couple.

"Yeah, Aaron was that same way, Claire _still_ has him wrapped around her little finger and I can only imagine what it will be like when her baby's born." JJ smiled and looked over in the direction of her husband who was mingling with some old friends from the FBI.

"How's Henry doing?" Morgan asked, trying to fight tears as he approached the women on the sidelines.

"Good, I just got a letter from him, apparently the humanitarian group he's working with is staying another six months and he's going to join them."

"In Peru? That will be hard to have him gone again." Garcia offered, aware of how much JJ missed her son.

"Yeah, but I think he's found a girl down there, he hasn't said anything, but one of the other volunteers came back and said that he and this girl named Angie are pretty serious." JJ answered, "Megan's already bugging us to let her go visit him on her spring break next month."

"Shy, quiet, sixteen year old Megan Hotchner wants to go to Peru?" Emily asked, taking a seat next to her friends, "I don't believe it. What did Hotch say when she told him?"

"Same thing Dave said when Josh told him he wanted to become an actor." JJ informed, taking a sip of her drink, "He told her she was absolutely not going to Peru alone, and that she could either spend her spring break here in DC or in Pittsburgh with my family."

"I'll bet she loved that." Emily smirked, "Josh had the same reaction when Dave tried to tell him that no son of his was going to go gallivanting off to LA when he had the opportunity to go to college unlike so many other kids out there."

"Oh the guilt trip routine? That's a good one." Morgan nodded, "Except when they try to use it on you."

"If all those women back in the day had seen what a softy you turned out to be, they'd be disgusted." Emily teased. "Mr. I'm so awesome Derek Morgan isn't so hard core anymore."

"A lot has changed." JJ offered, trying to mediate peace.

"Is it bad to say that I'm actually kind of glad that you two got abducted?" Emily asked JJ and Garcia, who just shrugged. "I mean, none of this wouldn't have happened--"

"If a bunch of Arayan psycho's hadn't stolen us away in the dark of the night and tried to turn us into cult members." Garcia interjected. "But no, I'm glad things turned out the way they did." She began to giggle loudly.

"What?" Emily asked after a moment.

"We are the biggest group of Rednecks!" Garcia cackled.

"Huh?" Emily, Morgan and JJ said in unison, fearing that the growing up of her baby girl had led Garcia to crack.

"It's like unit-cest all over the place." Garcia laughed. "Do you know how much in-breeding we have now? We are all either married to a coworker or someone we met at work. The majority of our children have married into another BAU family--it's like Dynasty. We're all now inter-related."

Morgan gave Garcia a look of utter disbelief.

"Jack has Sarah. Paige and Matthew. Claire married Rossi's nephew. And if I'm not mistaken Josh and Megan--" She let the others finish her thoughts.

"What? Shut up! How do you know these things about my sons that I don't." Emily shrieked gleefully.

"It's easy when you speak the language of love as fluently as I do." Garcia beamed.

"Eww. That's like incest." Morgan groaned. "Those two have grown up together."

"And Matt and Paige hadn't?" JJ retorted. "Just don't let Aaron know, I don't think he'd be very enthusiastic about the idea. He's holding out on Meg becoming a nun."

"Yeah, I think Dave may not take all that well either. He's already dealing with our eighteen year old deciding who wants to be an actor, let alone an actor who is dating his friend's daughter."

"Who is sixteen." Morgan pointed out before allowing his gaze to fall back to his daughter.

The team had been through so much together--UnSubs, retirement, kidnappings, torture--they had become a close family. Morgan couldn't help but smile at the thought that the family bond that had brought them together only got stronger as the years progressed.

"We just have a different way of doing things." Garcia smiled, laughing a little as she took in the older appearances of her friends as Reid, Hotch, and Rossi joined them at the table--time had passed so quickly, and so slowly at the same time. "They don't call it the BAU for no reason."

"No they don't Baby Girl." Morgan agreed, raising his glass to toast his friends. "To family."

"To family" they repeated, each taking a small sip from their drinks.


End file.
